Photo:Orlando Durán Hernández/ AdelanteCAMAGÜEY.- “I always liked reciting poems in the activities of the school and, almost always, these texts belonged to Martí”, says Maricela Valido Portela, still with the girl's soul in the eyes and the satisfaction of the one who had her destination sealed by the best of the teachers.

In her gait as the president of the Cultural Society José Martí (SCJM) counts with approximately ten years, but the life itself has taught her that the numbers are only that, figures, and that's why she only appreciates those moments that wrap up, of happiness, her heart:

“When I studied in Minas de Frío, in the Sierra, to prepare me as primary teacher in the forming school Makarenko, they took a picture of me along with an enormous bust of the Apostle located at the entry of the institution. I show this snapshot to all my friends so that they see that, since I was young, I was already a consecrated Martí´s follower”.

The Maricela happiness is related with her office that, briefly, is based in promoting, from the House of the Memory, the most genuine values of the Cuban. She is also happy because she speaks about Martí; and to speak about Martí, for her, represents an act of faith that overcomes to the conscience, the mystical and immense flame that reduces in two words: "infinite love”.

“After reading him, he sends me immediately to dictionaries, magazines and the critical editions of his works. So much linguistic wealth and universal knowledge entails the investigation of the reader, to activate the interest in the most unusual topics, from the natural sciences up to the history of how the spoon and the fork are made. To every matter, no matter how empty it seems, he puts a captivating air that magnetizes”.

Noemí Echevarría, Dolores Iglesias, Teresa Moreira and the sisters Adelina and Delia Olga Morales were the educators who taught Valido Portela the History of Cuba, Mathematics, Spanish and … “they introduced into me the interest in the National Hero. From all I gathered a little piece of his being.

“In my stage it was rare to listen to a young militant to say “ not” to the responsibilities. We were always ready to remain where we were more useful, as the Apostle expressed. That's why, after graduating, I was a teacher of third grade in a primary school in the town of Aguilar, in Vertientes. Then, in only five months, practically with 17 years, I assumed its direction”.

As researcher, Maricela has investigated in the depth of Martí´s work. Nevertheless, her inquiries have a peculiarity: "I have worked more with the thought of Fidel Castro, but it is inevitable to relate him to The Teacher; my Mastery thesis, for example, is a methodological proposal to overlap Fidel in the teaching of History of Cuba and, as the most universal of the Cubans means the starting point; the persons ask me which of two figures is the essence of the study.

“The scientific work in the 'Cultural Society' has contributed to the exchange, to rethink from several senses the legacy of the Apostle and to the socialization of results of different professionals like Luis Álvarez Álvarez, Olga García Yero, Matilde Varela Aristigueta and Ann Jústiz Guerra.

“I never stop learning of the groups that are present at the habitual appointments, in the House of the Memory. In our head office the children and adults linked to artistic projects, weave a unique Martí perception. They visualize him in a kaleidoscope of simple and complex concepts, construct him in a warm poetry without precedents”.

- How to continue his ideas?

- I think that the family plays an important role in this individual and, second, the school institutions. It is necessary that every teacher is capable of studying his literature and links it with the subject that he gives in a harmonious, not imposed way as if it was a patch in a cloth piece.

The Maricela profession makes her free; she does not declare it, only it is inferred due to her devotion, of the action, that they are worth more than thousand comments and of the comments that reflect her big sacrifices: "When you love your dad, your mom, the couple or a paradigm, you look for it wherever it is. This way it happened to me with Martí, to whom I resort and I will resort, eternally, to explain me the life”.